Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Eventually, I'm going to swatch the whole Picture Polish Opulence Collection, I promise. The thing is I like to wear the polish versus swatch and post it. So my swatches are slow coming. Some days I have swatch-a-thons, some days I don't.

Monday, July 30, 2012

I wanted to try my new fauxnad plate numbered QA5. I can't tell you more on who manufactures it but I have seen it on Ebay and it ships from China. I purchased this from Ninjapolish.com.

The base is China Glaze Desert Sun and I sponged some Wet n Wild A Show at the Palladium for extra sparkle. The stamps did not smudge. I smudged them when cleaning my plate.

Here's how the rest of the plate looked stamped:

I used Winmax black polish for stamping and a metal scraper. I did find that the skulls had to be swiped in both directions for the whole image to pick up or there would be excess polish between the cross bones. Also I do like the multiple images on one plate; however, having them close together sometimes both images will pick up. Some of the QA5 label would pick up when I tried to stamp the lower skulls. I removed it with a Qtip before stamping.

This plate is very nicely etched. I'd recommend to anyone wanting some fun nautical images, skulls and bows. There may be some trial and error involved when swiping and placing the stamps.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

I've been polish collecting since the summer of 2010. I've always had Wet n Wild or Sinful Colors here and there but the formulas were frustrating and chipped easily. I did have a few OPI but the colors I had were all reds. One day, I went the beauty supply place and picked up OPI Short's Story.

OPI Short's Story is a pink creme. It's not quite a Pepto Bismol pink. I'd say it's more of a Barbie pink. Some people hate pink. I dunno why I was drawn to this color. I just wanted a nice pink that applied well and dried glossy! Then the rest is history!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

This week's theme is music! A Perfect Circle is one of my favorite bands! If you are unaware, A Perfect Circle was another band formed in 1999 by frontman James Maynard Keenan of Tool. A Perfect Circle released three albums and went on hiatus in 2004. I was lucky enough to see them play live last year! I checked my spam folder one day and it was an alert that A Perfect Circle was playing near me! Ticket sold! I was wholly unaware that they were touring! I would have died if I had missed it!

Without further ado, here's my APC inspired nail art based off their eMOTIVe album cover:

Monday, July 23, 2012

Here's a quick tutorial I wrote up as a guest post for DIY Polish. Please be sure to check her out. She does some amazing nail art! My tutorial is how to remove dark nail polish without staining your cuticles.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

I saw some new creme polishes at Daiso Japan the other day. On the display, I found this black polish. I thought it had stamping potential. For a $1.50, I had nothing to lose right? I chose fauxnad plate S6 to test it with.

Fauxnad Plate S6 stamped with Winmax black. I chose this plate for its fine lines and is one of the more difficult plates to stamp with. This polish was very opaque and after swiping it the plate was still black.

I was unable to get the lines to pick up with the Konad stamping polish. I'm very happy I found this black polish at Daiso! I bought a back up!

There were other colors on the display and they did not stamp as well as the black.

Availibility?

Winmax is a Daiso brand and can be found on their regular in-store display. If you live in the Bay Area, Daiso stores seem to have sprung up everywhere. Plate S6 can be found here.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

It's late. I'll keep this short. The theme this week is to utilize dotting tools to create a manicure. My first experience using them can be found here. I've seen a lot of great uses and techniques with dotting tools. Life has been hectic for me the past few months; I haven't had the time or energy to do any nail art.

The base is Color Club Wing Fling from the summer collection. I tried making daisies but my white dried too soon.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

I received Picture Polish Monroe in a swap with the lovely Hooked! . Monroe is one of the three from their Opulence collection spring release. I also have Peacock to swatch and recently ordered Mask-a-Rade. I'm excited to have this trio of awesome colors.

Picture Polish Monroe is a burgundy blood wine jelly with a slight holographic effect. I want to say it's almost linear but not a scattered holographic glitter like in China Glaze's Fairy Dust. The formula on this was a little difficult to apply but I think most burgundy colors are hard to apply. It was hard to get an even coat. Overall, it took 3-coats to fully opaque; seen here with top coat.

Photo taken in direct sun.

Availability?

Picture Polish can be purchased from their Australian site or Ninjapolish.com (US distributor) carries the Opulence Collection as well as some their colors.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The theme for this week is the ruffian manicure. It was made popular a couple of years ago; it's not quite a half moon manicure or a funky french. It's painting your base color and then painting a contrasting color in a "U" swoop. The first ruffian was a gold chrome base with a dark indigo blue then mattified. You can use any contrasting colors for a ruffian.

Here was my first and only attempt at a ruffian:

It's harder to paint than I thought. The base is China Glaze Refreshmint and the dark purple is Wet n Wild Disturbia.

Monday, July 9, 2012

I finally received Floam in swap! If you follow Nail Venturous on Facebook, she recently announced she will no longer be making polish. However, Ninja Polish will still make and sell her biggest sellers.

Sorry there was no sun when I swatched this.

NVL Floam is a matte teal and yellow neon mix inspired by the Nickelodeon's kids toy by the same name. It was a malleable styrofoam mix that came in different colors. This Floam was opaque in 2-coats. This is swatched over a base coat, no under color. I used the foil method to remove it.

Availability?

Please follow Ninja Polish or sign up for their email updates when to purchase it. It sells out fast!

Hi everyone, today is my birthday! Yay! I'd like to thank those of you who sent me birthday cards early. I really appreciate it. I'm still feeling under the weather. I don't have the energy to do a special bday maniure.

I'm wearing my 4th of July manicure:

The red is OPI Big Red Apple which is probably the best red ever. The blue is Revlon Royal topped with my patriotic glitter.

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